EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 Review

Boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.

If you've been following the evolution of the PlayStation 3, then you'll probably remember the Fight Night Round 3 demo that EA producer Kudo Tsunoda gave at Sony's press conference in May 2005. In it, the enthusiastic spokesman raved about how the added power of the next-generation system would enable the series to benefit from realistic physics and facial expressions -- capturing the emotion and drama of boxing like its predecessors never had. Of course, those of us that played the Xbox 360 game earlier this year know that, while it's still very good, Round 3 isn't what was promised almost two years ago. The new PS3 edition isn't either.

But enough of what the game could have been, let's talk about what it is... and that's a pretty damn good boxing title. After all, EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 on the PlayStation 3 is nearly identical to its 360 counterpart. Ported over by the team at EA Canada, it looks and feels like the same code we threw punches at in February... with a couple of slight enhancements.

Obviously, the biggest new improvement comes with the addition of "Get in the Ring". Played exclusively in the first-person perspective, Get in the Ring mode actually changes player tactics because of how its affects your depth perception, timing, and reactions to offense. When looking through your own fighter's eyes, it becomes apparent that the jab is more important than it is from the third-person point-of-view (speed is everything here). Predicting an opponent's moves are more difficult to do too, and thanks to an onscreen damage system, your fighter's own level of damage makes a real difference in your ability (thanks to the creation of blind sports from prolonged facial blows).

Visually, Fight Night sees a few upgrades as well -- but they're so minimal when in motion that its hardly noticeable unless you're actively looking for them (re: the sweat looks more realistic and the lighting has been enhanced). Despite this better appearance, though, the PS3 version of Round 3 does suffer from slowdown (it gets particularly choppy during the close-up replays or fast multi-punch combos) and is has bizarrely-pixilated crowds as well. On the plus side, the amount of spaz-bounce (those random jittery reactions caused by a combination of rope and rag doll physics) has been minimized compared to other versions... but it's still there. Regardless, Round 3 is still a great looking game. Fighter animations, licensed faces, the physiques, and every single one of the fictional and actual areas are extremely well done (the Staples Center is spot on).

All of these new improvements follow several award-winning years; years in which the Fight Night franchise has won praise for its mix of arcade and sim-based gameplay elements. Naturally, that kind of recognition has set expectations rather high. After all, Round 2 had doubled the performance of the previous season's game in almost every category, and other than the unbalanced Haymaker punch, it had fine-tuned its mechanics to create one of the most responsive and enjoyable boxing games around. But where can you go from there?

In EA's estimation, the first thing to do was to tone down the over-clocked haymaker and bring the game back to basics. This is a very good thing. In real boxing, the most important punch you'll ever throw is the jab -- it sets up your opponent for other punches, is an excellent range-finder, and is just as effective as a defensive tool as it is an offensive one. EA understood this concept for Fight Night Round 3 because the harm that a jab or a jab-straight combo can do is greatly improved.

More importantly, though, cocking back a haymaker for super damage is no longer possible. If you remember from last year, you could literally chase your opponent around the ring with your shotgun ready to blast, taking shots along the way before eventually unleashing all holy hell with little risk. But if you telegraph that same punch this season (which is more obvious since the move has been slowed down), your opponent can easily knock that animation right out of you. Of course, this means that when haymakers land they'll rock your enemy more than they did before, but you'll have to work harder to get it there. It's a much more effective risk / reward system brings Haymaker abuse down several notches.